The present exemplary embodiments broadly relate to the art of marking systems including multiple parallel operating print-engines and, more particularly, to a method and system for ordering a job queue of a marking system. Such embodiments find particular application and use in association with maximizing productivity and utilization of redundant capabilities of multi-engine marking systems, and is discussed herein with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be understood that the present exemplary embodiments are capable of broad use and may be amenable for use in other applications and environments, including single-engine marking systems.
It is well understood that image marking systems of a great variety of types, kinds and configurations can receive, process and output a significant quantity of print jobs over the course of a normal period of operation. As such, it is common for numerous print jobs to be sent electronically from remote work stations and stored in queue for processing by an associated marking system at any given time. Thus, many such image marking systems include a memory or storage component that receives and holds the print jobs and/or data associated therewith prior to being released for processing and actual printing by the image marking system. In some alternate arrangements, such a job processing queue can be provided by an associated computer system or network.
Known printing systems typically process print jobs from the job queue in the order that they are received by the printing system. Normally, this is done without taking into consideration the state of the printing system itself, the components thereof or a user's desire to prioritize a job in the queue. As a result, the printing system might be incapable of outputting certain print jobs in the print queue when a user may seriously need the output.
A particular problem or nuisance can occur when a user, after having sent a print job to the printing system from a remote personal computer station, goes to the system to retrieve the sheet output, only to find that a rather large and time consuming preceding print job is the only one that is printing out. There is thus a need for a control system to allow the user, particularly in a multiple marking engine system, to somehow change the job queue in the memory, to prioritize the user's job while the user is at the printing system, and thereby avoid the nuisance of having to leave and return at a time when the large preceding print job is hopefully done, and the user's job has finally been printed out.
There is also a need for such a system that can print out the prioritized job for the user, without substantially delaying the print out of a preceding job, so that such a partial job interrupt of the preceding job is not apparent to the author/printer of the preceding job.